1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of electronic commerce and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for streamlining creation and editing of photo-based projects using a graphics user interface on a data network.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of electronic commerce also known as ecommerce, there are project-oriented Websites where users may create and edit works including models, poems, art, and photo-based products. Websites catering to photo-based editing promote online publishing and online transacting relative to printed works. The current state of such electronic services leaves much to be desired. Many of these services have fixed templates and multiple interfaces for project editing, making it tedious to get the desired output.
Other problems with the current state of photo-based services include inflexibility of the editor interface relative to process steps for editing content. Most such processes are not transparent and could lead to errors in printing and therefore in the final output product. Furthermore, each typical project is initiated from scratch in a way that does not promote efficiency from start to finish of a project.
The inventors are aware of a graphics user interface (GUI) for creating and editing photo-based projects over a data network that provides creation and editing tools to users through a single interface. The interface and supporting back-end system provides some automated and semi-automated processes, which users may take advantage of to enhance their experience with the mechanics of creating and editing an image-based product such as a photobook, for example.
It has occurred to the inventors that there are still many opportunities to improve upon existing system functionality and to expand the reach of the system to provide additional functionalities not only relevant to the aspects of creating and editing projects through the interface, but also relevant to other aspects of a user's experience and of system back-end operations, including network activities undertaken to fulfill client orders of created projects.
Therefore, what is needed are new methods and systems for further streamlining creation, editing, and printing of photo-based projects using a graphics user interface over a digital network.